PLEUliO-PNEUMONIA IN CATTLE. 
33 
infected State, Territory or district, for store purposes, until they 
shall have been first certified sound by a quarantine of the requi¬ 
site duration and stringency. Nothing could be more incongru¬ 
ous or inconsistent than the present condition of the United States 
law, or rather lack of law, on this subject. The Secretary of the 
Treasury has judiciously ordered that no cattle shall be imported 
from the infected countries of Europe, etc., without being sub¬ 
mitted to a quarantine of ninety days. The fact that these cattle 
are all high-priced thoroughbreds, selected and transferred with 
especial care, and that they have already been subjected to the 
test of a ten daj^s’ ocean voyage, during which latent disease has 
had an opportunity to develop, in no degree detracts from the 
soundness of the position held by the Secretary of the Treasury 
on this matter. The disastrous and irremediable infection of 
Australia and South Africa was effected by just such thorough¬ 
breds guarded by all these precautions, and subjected to the test 
of an ocean voyage of sixty to ninety days instead of ten, but 
without the additional safeguard of quarantine upon arrival. So 
it was also as regards quality, price and care in the case of the 
imports that infected Massachusetts and other countries before 
and since. In contrast with this unimpeachable position of the 
Secretary of the Treasury, guarding against infection by what is 
relatively a somewhat unlikely channel, we have absolutely no 
provision against the diffusion of lung plague from our own in¬ 
fected districts and markets through the unhampered sale of cattle 
that have been subjected to no especial care, that have been sent 
to market and will be removed from it in the common uncleansed 
cattle cars, that have been exposed in the market to thousands of 
chances of contagion through other stock, through places where 
other stock have preceded them, through yard attendants, drovers 
and butchers, and the only recommendation of which stock is, 
that they are live animals and can be bought at the cheapest and 
most remunerative rates. This low price, which so strongly 
recommends these cattle to the dealer, is probably the most dan¬ 
gerous characteristic of all, for no cattle are likely to be parted 
with so readily and cheaply as those that have been culled by the 
. unfortunate owner from an infected herd and thrown upon the 
